The Chinese government has built up the world’s largest known online disinformation operation and is using it to harass US residents, politicians, and businesses—at times threatening its targets with violence, a CNN review of court documents and public disclosures by social media companies has found.

The onslaught of attacks – often of a vile and deeply personal nature – is part of a well-organized, increasingly brazen Chinese government intimidation campaign targeting people in the United States, documents show.

The US State Department says the tactics are part of a broader multi-billion-dollar effort to shape the world’s information environment and silence critics of Beijing that has expanded under President Xi Jinping. On Wednesday, President Biden is due to meet Xi at a summit in San Francisco.

Victims face a barrage of tens of thousands of social media posts that call them traitors, dogs, and racist and homophobic slurs. They say it’s all part of an effort to drive them into a state of constant fear and paranoia.

  • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    11
    ·
    1 year ago

    Quite a few of those communists actively celebrate and want to imitate the monsters others are pointing to as cautionary examples.

    • theneverfox@pawb.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Those are idiots, they’re fed up with the horrors of capitalism, like the ideals of communism, and don’t understand that popularly understood “communism” was more authoritarianism than anything else. They believe the assertion is that the two options are brutal capitalism or an authoritarian monstrosity where everyone quotes Marx and Lenin

      If you judge an idea by the understanding of the dumbest supporters, they’ll all seem pretty stupid

      • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yes, communism has failed in many respects so far.* The reasons for that are complex, include active sabotage by anti-communist states, but anyone who doesn’t genuinely and critically reflect it’s failures is (probably) doomed to repeat those mistakes.

        This is the part I was replying to. A big part of the supporters aren’t critically reflecting its failures, which doesn’t make me very optimistic.